So, I just got in the door from a “12 hour tour, a 12 hours tour” (remember the Gilligan’s Island theme song) that took us to Llano Nopo, Oma, San Felix and back. Steve and I spent the day checking on a few of our Dead Wheat projects. Coles Notes update – everything is coming along well.
Apparently it rained pretty heavily yesterday throughout the Comarca, drenching Llano Nopo. Although it was dry there today, the road to Llano Nopo showed unmistakable signs of the previous day’s precipitation – muddy, slippery, deep rutted and heavily eroded. It was a good test for the L4. More »

I really can’t remember when or what made me aware of all the problems surrounding open fire cooking and how so many in the world suffer from its effects like burns, death, chronic respiratory illness, poor school attendance, lack or productivity and major deforestation.

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Any house construction is stressful. My dad stopped talking to his brother for years after the construction of our house back in the states. My neighbor in Bocas (who was also my co-builder) threatened to knock the whole thing down at one point during the construction. Needless to say, he stopped being my co-builder but unfortunately didn’t stop being my neighbor. So in Llano Ñopo, how could I expect anything different than a little bit of stress?

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An important step in our community development process in Llano Ñopo is communicating who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish. If we truly want to get the people on board and involved in this process, we must first help them to understand us. My first three months in site have been occupied largely by lots of home visits to informally let people know about DeadWheat.

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I grew up in a small Dutch community located in North West Indiana. I have a smattering of church denomination backgrounds that have given me a broad brushed understanding of varying scriptural perspectives and doctrinal derivatives. One of the churches I spent some time in while in high school is First Reformed Church of DeMotte. Last week a group of youth and adults came from that church to help us out with two of our initiatives, Air & Food Security.

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Paul and I (Paul’s wife, Linda) had the privilege of traveling to the village of Llano Nopo last week (June 9). Our trip had two purposes. First, to meet with a local curandero to continue our research of alternative/natural medicine. Second, to participate in a community meeting hosted by Andrea (on behalf of Dead Wheat International Foundation) to let them know about our foundation, our intent and approach.

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We were only part way into our early morning trip to Llano Nopo to drop off materials to build a simple 3-room house-post for our in-community team that we realized that he was probably not going to make it too far off the highway – certainly nowhere near as far as we originally hoped.

He, was Pedro (a nice guy), the driver of the truck transporting cement, blocks, steel beams, and rebar for our Dead Wheat house-post in Llano Nopo. We met up with Pedro about 45 minutes into our adventure just out of David around 4:45am. We were given instructions by Steve to look for a “loaded delivery truck parked in front of a grocery store across from a gas station just after the bridge” that we couldn’t miss. Ken spotted him through the rain under a dull light.

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About six years ago, I had a friend tell me to not worry about the items on ‘the list of things that need done’ that seem to be lagging behind. He said just keep pushing forward on all fronts and those items will have their time of progress. In my current life this idea applies very well. Since I have chosen to engage in rubbing shoulders with demographic that makes up the majority of the world, I have had no end to options of items that can fit on my task list. This has made me be very intentional about our (Dead Wheat) work.
I’m pleased that we have a narrow focus and one that addresses base needs. They all revolve around the idea that the people we are interacting with are vulnerable to things outside of their control and/or knowledge base. That is why we have adapted the term security to refer to the nature of our work. More »

Around 4am tomorrow, Ken and I are heading out to Llano Nopo, accompanied by a truck loaded with building materials (concrete blocks, cement, steel, rebar), to begin staging the construction of a small house for Andrea, our in-community worker who is living in Llano Nopo. Andrea has been living in a number of temporary accommodations and is in need of something permanent and more private. I’ll bring back some pictures from our trip. To review a list opportunities you can contribute toward, including this project, click here or click on the PROJECTS tab in the menu above.

Just over a week ago, Dan Wiseman visited Steve at the aquaponic farm to check out our progress and continue discussions regarding constructing stoves for a food shelter in a village in the Comarca (just north of San Felix). Let me give you a quick backstory before going further.

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